The Paddock Pulse - Jan. 6 Edition

This week's Paddock Pulse is chock full of good stuff from the IndyCar newswire and blogosphere, so let's dispense with any further ado and get right to it.

• No Thanks NASCAR [Planet-IRL]
  From Planet-IRL we get an impassioned plea from an IndyCar fan to NASCAR not to mess up Road America. Seems as though the NASCAR Nationwide Series will be making a stop there and visions of Infineon Raceway's neutering by SMI are dancing in some heads. Imagining that Road America might be altered similarly is only slightly less disturbing than the idea of an IRL fan asking to protect a road course.

• Is It To Soon To Look At 2011? [Oilpressure]
  Another impassioned blog about Road America - this time, a plea for the IZOD IndyCar Series to race there. Also on the request list? New Hampshire. But of the two, Road America would be the more vital for Indy racing because of its history of hosting amazing open-wheel contests.

• MILLER: Indy-Style Becomes Indy-Car [SPEEDtv.com]
  It's hard to read this end-of-decade synopsis of the Split Era without imagining Robin Miller telling it from a rocking chair on the porch of the Mug 'n' Bun while whittling a Novi out of a bar of soap.

• Road to Indy still riddled with pitfalls [Planet-IRL]
  Stephanie at Planet-IRL takes issue with the recent announcement of the "Road to Indy," pointing out that the road certainly doesn't end in the single destination most would expect. Thankfully, this column doesn't mention USAC midgets or Silver Crown at all, which definitely makes it one of the more progressive "Road to Indy" articles in recent memory.

• How Well Do You Know Your Bloggers? [Oilpressure]
  One of the downsides of the blogosphere is that there are some folks out there who use Internet anonymity to exaggerate their self-importance. This article makes a good point - that the "cream of the crop" of IndyCar blogs are written by people with very little pretension and a great deal of passion.

• Oreo Awards: Good, bad and the ugly [ESPN.com]
  John Oreovicz - ESPN writer, dad, and all around good guy - checks in with his end-of-decade wrapup. Not content simply to post a top-10 list, he posts six of them. Ah, Oreo, you overachiever you.

• Ten Stories to Watch in 2010 [Sports Illustrated]
  Bruce Martin sticks mostly to NASCAR - as do most of America's racing writers these days - but there are one or two mentions of IndyCar predictions in this rather tepid entry. Nothing earth-shattering, though. So don't blame me if you're not entertained.

• IRL Coming to Gran Turismo 5 (PlayStation 3) [IGN]
  The IRL has licensed the new Gran Turismo 5 game for the Playstation. The IRL Dallara will appear with about a thousand other cars in the console game. Great news for casual gamers. Everyone else will probably snort derisively and hop back onto iRacing.

• AARWBA All-America Team Dinner - January 16 [Motorsport.com]
  The American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association (AARWBA) will unveil their All-America Team at their annual dinner at John Force Racing's headquarters on January 16. AARWBA is the oldest motorsports media association in the nation and definitely worth the dues if you're a motorsports media professional.

That's it for now - remember, if you see any IndyCar-related news out there that we haven't discovered yet, make sure you post it in our FanShots section!